Every season The Bachelor Australia chooses one woman to be the token “Stage-Five Clinger” character, and this year the title was bestowed upon Jimmy Nicholson‘s runner-up, Brooke Cleal.

The Bachelor Australia 2021 runner-up Brooke Cleal was depicted as this season's Stage-5 Clinger with Jimmy Nicholson.
The Bachelor Australia 2021 runner-up Brooke Cleal was depicted as this season’s Stage-5 Clinger with Jimmy Nicholson. Source: Network Ten.

Despite the show sometimes feeling like the sequel to How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days, Brooke’s castmate Laura O’Loughlin has revealed that the 27-year-old isn’t “crazy” as the audience was led to believe.

“[Out] of the ninety thousand hours of footage [producers] had of Brooke, they took out the point-five per cent where she looked utterly insane,” Laura said in episode 107 of So Dramatic! With Megan Pustetto.

“When you put it all together and she’s sitting there going, ‘Oh, my ovaries are tingling’, of course they’re going to make her look crazy!”

The 28-year-old told So Dramatic! that she believes Brooke received the clinger edit to distinguish her from Holly Kingston, who was set up to be The Bachelor‘s “obvious winner”.

Laura Says Producers Pitted Women Against Each Other!

Laura also admitted that it “pisses [her] off” that Brooke, as well as second runner-up Jay Lal, were depicted poorly in order “to make Holly look desirable”.

“You shouldn’t have had to bring down other women to make… the obvious choice, the only choice,” she mused.

“Australia’s rooting for [Holly] because she’s not crazy and she’s not there for the wrong reasons.”

Nutritionist Jay’s time on The Bachelor took a sharp turn for the worst halfway through the season when rumours arose that she was on the show for fame.

She allegedly voiced her desire to be Jimmy’s runner-up, because they “go further” after the show.

Keen to hear more of Laura’s chat with Megan Pustetto? Tune in to episode 107 of So Dramatic! With Megan Pustetto wherever you get your podcasts!

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